The Third Annual Symposium on Equity in the Entertainment Industry and Awards will be held on February 23rd from 12-3pm at Stanford University. Tamila Gresham (founder and CEP of Represent) will give the keynote. Awards will be given to local feminist theater luminaries Velina Brown, Lily Tung Crystal, and Torange Yeghiazarian. Registration is free. More info here.

A Safe Space

If there's one thing 2016 taught us, it's that both nationally and locally we need a safe space for artists and the underrepresented.

This year, you've seen us build community and instigate change with our work on The Mikado. We've promoted countless Asian American theatre artists and given voice to women and other marginalized people in our fHERocious New Play Readings.

It's important now, more than ever, to keep telling our stories and push towards equity on stage and in our communities. But we can only do that together.

Every Friday in December is Ferocious Friday. Celebrate this weekend by helping us reach our fundraising goal of $8,888.88*. We're already 25% there!

YBCA 100

Lily Tung Crystal and Mina Morita have been named to the YBCA 100, a group of "creative minds, makers, and pioneers...who are making the provocations that will shape the future of American culture.” Thank you, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, for the great honor.

And thank you, YBCA, for hosting the exciting forum “Equitable Representation in the Arts” in May. You’ve helped inspire diversity on Bay Area stages. Change is happening!

We, the undersigned theater artists, are concerned about your upcoming production of THE MIKADO to be produced at multiple Bay Area venues. We recently learned of your March 25 press release stating that “in the spirit of sensitivity,” you intend to alter your original plan and set the production in England.

We understand that our conversations and the resulting community pressure have prompted you to rethink your production. Yet, in light of this shift, we have a few remaining questions.

The BackgroundFirst, we feel it important that the community know the background of this evolving conversation. About a month ago, you asked Ferocious Lotus Theatre Company to refer ethnically Asian actor/singers to your production set in Japan. We sat down with your managing director Sarah Vardigans and voiced our concerns about a) casting and b) the inherently racist elements of THE MIKADO and how the show was to be presented on stage.

Ms. Vardigans told us that Lamplighters could not commit to hiring Asian or Asian-American actors for the Asian roles. She also stated that you were trying to mitigate the opera’s racist elements by a) not using yellow-face makeup on the Caucasian actors; b) setting the play in Japan during the Meiji Era when people dressed in western clothing; and c) taking out a couple lines in the libretto.

Firstly, having non-Asian actors play Asian roles itself constitutes yellow-face; it does not matter what makeup or clothing they’re wearing. Thus, we chose not to refer performers. Secondly, we would not recommend that people in the community participate or endorse a show that perpetuates racial stereotypes.

Present ConcernsAs a response, you are now setting the opera in England, but there are still lingering dramaturgical questions: THE MIKADO’s racist Japanese names were included in the plot summary published in your March 25 press release. Will those names be changed for production? Will any of your non-Asian actors be playing Asian roles and thus incorporating yellow-face? Will any Asian actors be portraying stereotypical Asian characters? How will you handle the orientalism that is present throughout the libretto and score?

We hope that you continue to address this matter with social-political awareness. We acknowledge the removal of yellow-face from your Facebook audition posting. However, your website remains full of photos of yellow-face from past productions, and even more concerning, school tours and education programs. If you are sincerely concerned about racial sensitivity, we encourage you to stop perpetuating these images.

We hope that your company appreciates the problematic aspects of this material and will work to adequately reinvent it, even in an English setting. As you know, there is a longstanding legacy of White appropriation of Asian cultures that has brought much volatility to the theatre community in recent years, namely at the Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society in 2014 and the cancellation of the New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players production in 2015 at NYU’s Skirball Center.

Continuing DiscussionConsidering this important and sensitive conversation, which started in person, we had hoped to hear from you directly about your evolving approach to addressing our concerns. Lamplighters’ communication with us so far has been somewhat dismissive and disappointing.

For example, Ms. Vardigans implied in a March 21 email that because we didn’t recommend Asian-American actors to your show—one that would incorporate yellow-face—we forced you to forego an opportunity to expand the diversity of your company. We at Ferocious Lotus argue that that responsibility is yours, and you can still make the choice to hire actors of color, including for this current production. Moreover, we encourage you to do so and would be happy to refer talented performers once the production has adequately dealt with the racist elements of its script and presentation.

We invite you to continue this dialogue with us and our local and national allies.

The New Mikado

We recently saw THE NEW MIKADO and heartily endorse it. They did wonderful work with the libretto, making only minor changes, staying true to the script, while opening it up to a wider, more diverse audience. It was clever, hilarious, and full of heart.

Congratulations, Lamplighters, and the entire cast, crew and creative team! And thank you immensely for being in conversation with us these past few months.

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